by Madeleine Brent
Blurb:
Here is a tale of charm and adventure-- set in Europe around the turn of the century--whose colorful action ranges from a touring circus in Hungary to the fox-hunting society of the English countryside to the elegant circles of wealth and fashion in London. It is the story of a spirited young woman of eighteen who has left an unhappy, uncertain past in England and made a new life for herself as a trapeze artist in a small touring circus...
But that forgotten past will stumble upon her one day, beside a stream in Hungary, where the circus has pitched its tents for a time. It will come in the form of a mysterious young man-- handsome, appealing, yet curiously remote-- whose appearance is the beginning of a strange, dangerous intrigue that involves deception, romance, disappearance and, in the end, the revelations of a family's darkest secrets.
My Reaction:
This is the third "Madeleine Brent" novel I've read, to date. The first, Moonraker's Bride, I loved; the second, Merlin's Keep, was slightly less of a favorite, but I'd still give it 4.5 stars. Stranger at Wildings is another star down the ladder, for me.
I enjoyed parts of the book and the overall tone-- it's one of those books where you know everything will turn out okay and nothing too bad will happen to the main characters-- but there were also times when I couldn't suppress an eye-roll or even an inward groan. I don't remember feeling that way about Moonraker's Bride.
Perhaps part of my problem with the book was that circuses and medical ambitions aren't exactly tailored to my personal literary sweet spots, though I did enjoy aspects of the circus element better than I would've expected. Also, while I knew to expect amazing coincidences, some of these were a bit much!
So, not a favorite, but a decent read. I'd recommend it to fans of the genre, but not as an introduction to the author.
